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Charter shuts down fake website

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, February 10, 2003

Charter Communications has asked the FBI to investigate a rogue web page the high-speed Internet company shut down Saturday.

The company said the web page was imitating the Charter site. The site asked for confidential information from a small group of Charter Pipeline high-speed Internet customers, said Bill Morand, director of government relations.

"Charter became aware of it relatively early on Saturday and had it shut down by noon," he said.

The page was titled "Charter Security Procedure" and requested confidential information such as user names and passwords. It stated that this was a mandatory procedure, Morand said. The page operators didnt hack into Charters server but instead set up a mechanism to fool Charter customers.

"It basically provided the person who set this up an access to our network," Morand said. "We believe this hoax was set up because they couldnt get access to us on their own."

Sage Eastman, spokesman for Attorney General Michael Cox, said this is an example of identity theft  using anothers personal information to gain unauthorized access to records. And its happened to other companies. The office received more than 25,000 written complaints and more than 110,000 calls, and identity theft was the No. 1 complaint, he said.

Michigans growing identity theft problem follows a national trend, Eastman said. Cox has put a task force in motion to deal with the problem.

Eastman had advice for people who believe they are victims of identity theft. Often, identity theft comes in the form of unwanted credit card, phone or other charges that the owner of the account didnt make.

The first step is to call the local police department, make a report and get a copy of it. Many credit card and other types of companies require a report as documentation of the crime.

Next, the person should call credit bureaus and notify them of the fraud. People have fraud alerts placed on credit card and other accounts so personal verification must be provided before opening another account. If its a credit card, dispute the fraudulent charges, close the old accounts and open new ones with new passwords. Dont use your mothers maiden name, social security number, birth date or other words or numbers that an identity thief could easily track down.